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Document shredding for lawyers and notaries:
three pieces of GDPR-compliant advice
Lawyers and notaries work with confidential and often very personal client data on a daily basis. If this data falls into the wrong hands, the consequences can be devastating. Sensitive data must therefore be protected from unauthorized access by third parties. This also includes disposing of it securely and in accordance with the law as soon as it is no longer needed.
In this article, you will find three pieces of advice on document destruction in accordance with the GDPR for lawyers and notaries.
1. Take responsibility yourself: on-site document shredding in law firms and notary's offices
1. Take responsibility yourself: on-site document shredding in law firms and notary's offices
Whether it's case files, contract documents or expert opinions, meeting notes or interim statuses for semi-finished documents - many sensitive documents are stored in paper form in law firms or notary's offices. If these are no longer needed, for example because the legal retention periods have been reached or there is a corrected version of the document, some law firms and notary's offices have them destroyed by an external service provider.
However, responsibility for confidential client files cannot simply be handed over: according to the GDPR, such a service provider must be regularly checked for contractual compliance. In the event of breaches, the law firm or notary's office remains liable without exception. And notaries and lawyers cannot simply pass on the damage to their reputation and loss of trust from clients in the event of a data leak. It is therefore safer not to hand over client files that are no longer required, but to destroy them internally.
2. Document shredding according to GDPR: pay attention to security level and equipment when buying shredders for lawyers and notaries
In order to carry out the destruction of paper files internally, law firms or notary's offices must be equipped with suitable shredders with the appropriate security level in accordance with DIN standard 66399 and ISO/IEC 21964. Document shredders for lawyers or notaries should comply with security level P-5 as a minimum. Such devices are also suitable for the GDPR-compliant destruction of particularly confidential and secret documents, as they shred paper into pieces no larger than 30 mm², making it virtually impossible to recover.
When deciding on a suitable model, the additional features of the device should also play a role, for example whether CDSs or USB sticks can also be destroyed in a legally compliant manner.
3. Dispose of files that are no longer needed immediately: equip notary's office or law firm with sufficient shredders
How many document shredders should be purchased for notary's offices or law firms depends on their size. It should be borne in mind that time is often short in hectic everyday working life, but discarded documents should not be left lying around for too long. This is because the longer such sensitive data is stored in a law firm or notary's office and the more people have access to it, the greater the risk that it will be viewed by unauthorised persons or disposed of improperly in the wastepaper basket due to misunderstandings or carelessness.
Notaries and lawyers should therefore equip every office with at least one document shredder. This way, any papers that are no longer needed can be disposed of in a data protection-compliant manner. This saves coordination effort and also ensures that the law firm or notary's office does not become a warehouse.
